Enough!I think that he was talking about Naija, and I missed his post so I certainly wasn't infering that Jolie was lesbian. Though not all lesbians are obviously lesbian you know :)
*steals Xiagan's moderator hat and closes the topic*
lol - Angelina Jolie really doesn't fulfill my idea of a lesbian though. :D
Actually, I think it's a fairly valid question. One of my older friends who played the demo sort of wrote it off initially because he didn't get very far and was just kind of swimming around looking at pretty things. I later expanded his view a bit, and he realized he didn't get what it was about at all. The game gets more... severe, let's say, later on. It maintains the same general feeling throughout, but there's plenty of action and crazy fun stuff in there, too. Certainly a game that could appeal to females, but not prohibitively so in any capacity. I never felt like I was playing a "chick game" at all. I equate it more to the experiences I had playing, say, ICO or Shadow of the Colossus. It was a very different experience. It felt a little foreign (in a good way), and not in a sense that had anything to do with gender.
Well, here's the list of guys I know who play Aquaria....
Inkblob
and hundreds more...
You're not alone. :)
So that was a little bit of a downer; it went from pure-atmospheric exploration game, to a kind of Metroidvania shoot'em-up (see: energy form, Gradius "Option"-like pets). But on the upside there's built-in level creator, so I can still put together pure-atmospheric exploration levels if I want (and hope others do the same).
But again, I think the initial "girl game" sentiment comes from the avatar combined with the narrative, rather than the gameplay elements.
I don't know any girls that have played it aside from silverflagon here.
Im a guy too, chibi :(lol
lol
A real gamer dosent look at gender when he/she plays a game, they look at the gameplay, character devolopment, story, music, and spectacle, and this game tops all of those. Most indie games arent gender specific at all, but watch those games for the wii and DS, because alot of those are aimed for certain gender audiences, part of the retoric, ya know. Other examples of really good games whose main characters are female: Mirrors Edge, Portal, and Tomb Raider.
Tomb Rainder kinda boosts your masculinity
Honestly, I got a bit of the girl-game vibe as well. This has zero to do with the gameplay and everything to do with the characterisation. No one would say Metroid's a girl game, even though the main character is female; it's just a good game. Likewise, Tomb Raider's not a girl game, but it's pretty clearly a guy game (and a terrible game, at that, mwahaha). Naija's portrayed as.. I'm not sure what age, but probably <20. The dialogue and the performance are really solidly female-oriented, probably adolescent female at that. So, I'm not talking about "girl game" in the sense of a Barbie game, or a baby-raising or horse-training game, just a game that feels like it's skewed towards a particular demographic due to both the story, and how that story is told.Few games are and I say we need more of them. :)
*steals Xiagan's moderator hat and closes the topic*
Im a guy too, chibi :(
lol
Two notes:
Derek, you raise an interesting point about what makes Naija such a fascinating character. While obviously Lara and Samus are entirely different beasts spawned from vastly different creative centers, one being an oversexed adventure cliche and the other being a near-silent agent of contextually emotive storytelling (can you guess which one I prefer?), Naija's innocence and -- most extraordinarily -- her sense of wonder set her apart in alarmingly unique ways. My sense of alarm, I think, stems from the sheer lack of this sense in other characters around the gaming spectrum. When Naija offers a soft gasp of surprise, or a quiet little "wow" of fascination, I'm awestruck at the power it has to help convey the physicality of the world, the inherent (if sometimes merely implied) nature of it. And that's cool. As hell.
Which brings me to my second note. I think that sense of grandeur is what made me feel, when playing Aquaria, similar to how I felt playing ICO and SotC. Not because the gameplay is at all similar, but because there was that sense of something wondrous. The games all achieved it in different ways given the different storytelling methods and natures of the protagonists, but all 3 games were palpably wondrous to me. I keep using that word because I can't seem to find anything that better describes the feeling. What Aquaria may have lacked in terms of dimensional depth or raw GPU-pushing technology, it made up for in art, sound, and a pervading sense of carefully meted mystery. Of obfuscation, even, but only when that lead to making something more interesting or intriguing instead of merely more obscure. All 3 games excelled in that regard, and the sense of wonder was present as a result. But in Aquaria's case, it was most uniquely expressed where it seemed to emanate from the heroin herself, and that made a huge impression on me. Identifying with her was easy because of that, and the sort of humility present in that attitude is what makes her so heartbreakingly fragile, so disarmingly endearing.
I wrote a long review of the game when it came out, just so I had a link on my own site to throw at people that I thought would like the game and because I really wanted to see it succeed, but I don't know if I'd exactly realized how far the emotional connection with the game extended until I had some more time for reflection. I knew partly why I was connected, but I don't think I quite understood how Naija's connection to her own world affected my own connection to it; and not just because she was there swimming in it, but because she and I were both equally stimulated by it.
I don't know any girls that have played it aside from silverflagon here.
I'm currently playing! And also a female.
Wait, wait, wait. That means windows 1.1 is at least out for you, right? ;)
lolWait, wait, wait. That means windows 1.1 is at least out for you, right? ;)
:o.......
There is a possibility that I am testing it.....
/runs away
Yes, there are a few of us Windows 1.1 testers here...
::)
What have I done!?!?!Some of us are cool with it Chrissy :D
What have I done!?!?!
Other people would call your procrastination honest volunteer work. :)
Tetris is okay. But I much prefer the somewhat obscure Magical Drop games for Neo Geo. The day I got Magical Drop Pocket for my Neo Geo Pocket Color was one of the best days of my life. The other was when I got Seiken Densetsu 3 running via emu on my PSP, then discovered there was a Neo Geo emu that would run Magical Drop 3. I went into a coma and had to be taken to the hospital. The doctors said there was no cure for happiness (I think life has since proved them wrong), but eventually my mind made sense of this pure, concentrated bliss, and I awoke to spend far too much time playing old games at work when I really should have been working.
Also, I'd just like to apologize for my participation in this complete thread derailment. My own boards are sort of known for going off course, I guess maybe I'm feeling a little too at home...
Is it anything like this? http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/272924
Tetris is okay. But I much prefer the somewhat obscure Magical Drop games for Neo Geo. The day I got Magical Drop Pocket for my Neo Geo Pocket Color was one of the best days of my life. The other was when I got Seiken Densetsu 3 running via emu on my PSP, then discovered there was a Neo Geo emu that would run Magical Drop 3. I went into a coma and had to be taken to the hospital. The doctors said there was no cure for happiness (I think life has since proved them wrong), but eventually my mind made sense of this pure, concentrated bliss, and I awoke to spend far too much time playing old games at work when I really should have been working.Mine also Quemaqua, but on other boards try my hardest to stick to the subject because devation is not always liked. Artists are pretty well known for the fact that they just deviate lol
Also, I'd just like to apologize for my participation in this complete thread derailment. My own boards are sort of known for going off course, I guess maybe I'm feeling a little too at home...
This guy kind of sucks at it, but that's probably better so you can get a better sense of what's going on.
Lol, you didn't have to put it that way. I was actually very light-headed at that time when I was recording this because it was in the middle of the afternoon and I haven't eaten yet. >_<
You had to bring this off-topic back?
It's a pretty dead topic anyways, specially in todays society where it's borderline to think that something is specifically a girls game or a guys game. I remember when Hockey was just a guys game, and such isn't the case in todays society.Hey now I could say a lot about that topic, careful DM only both of us are way way too young to remember that :o
only both of us are way way too young to remember that :oHaha, what, so you're really NOT 4000 years old? Aww.
Oh, and from the sounds of things you use that name often Quem?
LOL! Seriously Chibi!? Two pees in a pod here I guess.. hah